Wei Yi still holds the record for being the youngest-ever player to cross the 2700 rating barrier. The Chinese star, a fearless tactician, did not rise to the very top of the world ranking as had been anticipated, but he is still a really strong grandmaster. After kicking off the Chessable Masters with three wins and a draw, he is leading the standings table on 10/12 points.
Three big names share second place with eleven rounds to go in the preliminaries, as Magnus Carlsen, Ding Liren and Anish Giri all collected two wins and two draws on Thursday. A football scoring system is in place — 3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw — which means no fewer than 33 points are still up for grabs in the online event.
With half the field set to reach the knockout stage, the youngest player amid the strong lineup is currently standing on the top half of the table. Abhimanyu Mishra, who turned 13 three months ago, started with back-to-back losses, but wins over Eric Hansen and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov left him in sole seventh place on 6/12 points.
After drawing Praggnanandhaa with black in the first round, Wei scored three wins in a row to grab the lead. First he got the better of Pentala Harikrishna out of a sharp Ragozin Defence.
Giri drew twice with black and won twice with white on Thursday. In round 4, he defeated Gawain Jones after showing excellent technique in an endgame with bishops of opposite colours. GM Karsten Müller analysed the ending.
